Posts or Comments 12 March 2024

Bill Brieger | 01 Dec 2006 11:53 am

About Bill Brieger

bill-rbm-sm.jpgBill Brieger is currently a Professor in the Health Systems Program of the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins University. He was a Professor in Health Education at the African Regional Health Education Centre, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, from 1976 to 2002. His research interests have focused on the social and behavioral aspects of tropical disease control, and in the area of malaria research, funded by the Unicef/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Tropical Disease Research program (TDR) and USAID implementing partners, this has included acceptability of pre-packaged antimalarial drugs, urban malaria, role of patent medicine sellers in malaria treatment, and community and cultural perceptions of malaria as a basis for village health worker training and health education (see sample publications below).

Bill was a member of the team that developed and pilot tested the original Roll Back Malaria needs assessment tools in 1998. From 2003 to 2006 he provided technical assistance, program coordination and planning for USAID’s Malaria Action Coalition in Nigeria to bring about policy and program change in malaria case management and malaria in pregnancy, and was also involved in developing Nigeria’s malaria BCC strategy. Bill also served as an adviser to the VOICES Malaria Advocacy Program of JHU’s Center for Communication Program from 2005-09.* He was also a member of the Mectizan Expert Committee and thus maintains an interest in the control of onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis and other neglected tropical diseases.

He received a BA in political science and a MPH in health education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his DrPH from the Johns Hopkins University. He lectures primarily in online course offerings by JHSPH and Coursera on the principles of health education, the social and behavioral foundations of primary health care, personnel development and training methods, communication theory, qualitative research, urban health and program consultation skills.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Magazine interviewed a student who had taken Bill’s courses.  He made the following observations about the distance education format:

“It’s a really good way to make it work for you,” says David Williams, MPH ’09, who lived and worked a demanding job in Rockville, Maryland, editing technical journals while earning his degree. After working from 8:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. he would have dinner at home and then “jump online and spend two to three hours listening to lectures or doing the other work.” It was, he says, the only way he could have earned his degree,” plus it came with some unexpected insights that enriched the experience. “I took several classes with [International Health Professor] William Brieger including one called Training Methods and Continuous Education for Health Workers,” he says. “And while that course was going on, Professor Brieger was actually out in the field in Africa doing his work. It was pretty neat to hear from someone who was working on the issues he was talking about.”

You can follow Bill on Twitter. Bill also makes writes regular malaria articles for the bi-monthly publication, Africa Health.  Also check out publications in ORCID.
Some Malaria Publications

  • Okeibunor JC, Orji BC, Brieger W, Ishola G, Otolorin EO, Rawlins B, Ndekhedehe EU, Onyeneho N, and Fink G. Preventing malaria in pregnancy through community-directed interventions: evidence from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Malaria Journal 2011; 10:227 http://www.malariajournal.com/content/10/1/227/abstract
  • Ramakrishna J, Brieger WR, Adeniyi JD. Treatment of malaria and febrile convulsions: an educational diagnosis of Yoruba beliefs. International Quarterly of Community Health Education 1988 89; 9: 305 319.
  • Brieger WR. Pile sorts as a means of improving the quality of survey data: malaria illness symptoms. Health Education Research 1994; 9(2): 257-260.
  • Brieger WR, Sesay HR, Adesina H, Mosanya ME, Ogunlade PB, Ayodele JO, Orisasona SA. Urban malaria treatment behaviour in the context of low levels of malaria transmission in Lagos, Nigeria. African Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences 2002; 30(suppl): 7-15.
  • Brieger WR, Nwankwo E, Ezike VI, Sexton JD, Breman JG, Parker KA and Robinson T. Social and behavioural baseline for implementing a strategy of insecticide impregnated bednets and curtains for malaria control at Nsukka, Nigeria. International Quarterly of Community Health Education 1996-97; 16(1):  47-61.
  • Brieger WR, Onyido AE, Sexton JD, Ezike, VI, Breman JG and Ekanem OJ (1996) Monitoring community response to malaria control using insecticide-impregnated bednets, curtains and residual spray in Nsukka, Nigeria. Health Education Research 1996; 11 (2): 133-145.
  • Brieger WR, Salako LA, Umeh RE, Agomo PU, Afolabi BM, Adeneye AK. Promoting Prepackaged Drugs for Prompt and Appropriate Treatment of Febrile Illnesses in Rural Nigerian Communities. International Quarterly of Community Health Education 2001-02; 21(1): 19-40. see extracts in: Lessons learned in Home Management of Malaria: Implementation research in four African countries. Margaret Gyapong, Bertha Garshong. World Health Organization 2007.
  • Salami KK and Brieger WR. Consumer response and satisfaction with prepackaged antimalarial drugs for children in Aba, Nigeria. International Quarterly of Community Health Education 2005-06; 24(3): 213-227.
  • Goodman C, Brieger W, Unwin A, Mills A, Meek S, Greer G. Medicine sellers and malaria treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa: what do they do and how can their practice be improved? American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2007; 77 (6 Suppl): 203-18.
  • Roman E, Rawlins B, Gomez P, Dineen R, Dickerson A, Brieger W. Malaria in Pregnancy: The Dynamic Relationship between Policy and Program Implementation. Harvard Health Policy Review 2008; 9(1): 198-209.
  • Brieger WR. Prospects for malaria control in Nigeria. Dokita (Journal of the University of Ibadan Medical Students’ Association) 2009; 34(1): 63-69.
  • Brieger W. Rapid diagnostic tests can improve the quality of malaria case management (review article). Africa Health 2009; 31 (6): 13-16.

*Please note that the Voices program of JHUCCP no longer supports this blog.

3 Responses to “About Bill Brieger”

  1. on 01 Jun 2017 at 10:48 am 1.Jamie Uhrig said …

    I saw that you liked my tweet https://twitter.com/himmoderator/status/870251740825890817

    Am I correct that a ‘fake’ drug with no artemisinin in it would not influence resistance?

    Thanks,

    Jamie
    @himmoderator

  2. on 14 Dec 2017 at 12:57 pm 2.Christina Shaw said …

    Hello,

    My name is Christina Shaw and I run the Stop Cholera website (https://www.stopcholera.org/), created under the DOVE Project which is led by Dr. David Sack. We came across ‘Oral Cholera Vaccination in Emergencies: Experiences from Freetown, Republic of Sierra Leone’ and feel that it would be a great addition to our blog.

    We have cross-posted stories on our blog from NPR, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s Advanced Training Program on Humanitarian Action, and others and you can see an example of what that looks like here: https://www.stopcholera.org/blog/yemen%E2%80%99s-cholera-crisis-fighting-disease-during-armed-conflict. You would get full credit and we would link directly to your website. Please let me know if you would allow us to promote this great piece via cross-posting!

  3. on 02 Apr 2018 at 9:07 am 3.Luis E. Benavente said …

    Bill, your paper on simian malaria says that P. vivax originated in Asia, this is disputed by recent research. I personally think that it is not possible that Duffy negativity attained near saturation level in SubSaharan Africa unless Pv originated there and escaped Africa before it reached saturation point.

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